Sweet Cinnamon Apples

Hi y'all! Here is the roving foodie, reporting today from wonderful St. Louis. Thanks to all who wished me a nice vacation. I am having a fantastic time and eating like a hog ;-) So many different types of cuisine to go through that one just forgets about that slim waistline.

But there is one thing you gotta love about America and the Americans - it is a land of huge opposites and contradictions. Take this scenario: We are at McDonalds (for those in Europe - yup those supersize meals are HUMUNGUS), in comes a slightly larger person and orders one of these supersize menus and his drink - a diet coke of course!!!

Everytime time I go into a supermarket here I always find it a whole new experience. I was wondering what does a single person do here? I mean have you ever seen the portions of cream cheese they sell here, or the butter. I cannot believe that everyone has a family of 10 to feed! Then of course you get those tiny mini bagels, for example, which is cool but the bag size is so big that you are intimidated by it.

Well I did make a nice breakfast for my family the other day. Thought I would buy that bag of mini bagels and make a kind of french toast reinvented sort of thing. I was not happy with just plain fench toast so I thought something has to go along with this to really spoil my parents, bro, his girlfriend, her daughter and my Soeri.

This is what I served up. Beautiful sweet apples caramalized in cinnamon sugar, what could possibly be more spoiling than that?

For the cinnamon apples: In a very hot pan add the sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Allow to melt well. Now add the apples and caramalize them until soft. I like having a few chunks of caramel in the apples as it adds a touch of crunch to the whole thing. So, if you have a few clumps of caramel don't worry.

For the french bagel: Beat the eggs with the milk lightly. Add the nutmeg and cinnamon and whisk well. Cut the bagel in half and soak in the wash well. In a hot pan melt the butter and fry the bagels on both sides until a nice gold color.

Serve with the warm cinnamon apples and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey.

Verdict:French toast is boring in comparison to this. The mixture of all the beautiful spices harmonized so well with the apples and the bagel. My french toast/bagel reinvented came on really well. This was so good that my gang actually thanked me for this. How sweet? So, if you are looking to spoil someone special then you know what to serve them.

Soeren ate his with Nutella but he loved the apples. Now he seems to think that apples will always be served this way. Which I will be filing in my brain for the The Daily Tiffin when I am back home again.

Bagel french toast - what an awesome idea! This reminds me, have you ever tried banana bread french toast? It's rich but really good! And yeah, shopping for one here is not easy. There are some things I just don't usually buy, and once in a while I raid my mom's kitchen for the odd item... :-)

Hear hear on portion sizes! A head of celery or a bunch of parsley has to be subdivided with friends or goes bad in the fridge. And why not do 'half' bags of bagels and processed bread? My local pidgeons are well ed.

I think portions in grocery stores are designed with freezers in mind. And yes, unless you have roomies, you throw out a lot of food as a singleton. (Unless of course you thrive on microwave dinners--blech!) Did you even visit a Costco? I have a family of 5 and I don't buy my produce there!

Remember our fridges over here tend to be a lot bigger than Europe, too (if I remember correctly.)

Love cinnamon-apple anything. Will try it substituting maple syrup for the sugar, though--just to make me feel a little healthier!

Thank you for visiting What's For Lunch, Honey? and taking time to browse through my recipes, listen to my ramblings and enjoy my photographs. I appreciate all your comments, feedback and input. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and respond to your comments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy your stay here and that I was able to make this an experience for your senses.

Hello, I am Meeta a freelance food photographer, stylist and writer living in the cuturally rich city of Weimar, Germany with my husband and our son, where I enjoy preparing multi-cultural home cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients. What's for lunch, Honey? is my award winning food blog where I combine my love for food with my love for photography and styling...